California is one of Amtrak's greatest success stories. But it is falling victim to the disinformation campaign of the White House, with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta the officially designated snake-oil salesman for the administration's Amtrak-laundering scheme. Unfortunately for Amtrak, 21st-century politics is conducted as much by advertising campaign as by legislative process, and, unlike Social Security, the railroad has no large, organized, well-funded advocacy groups to tell its side of the story. Without that, California stands to experience severe disruption in commuter and intercity train service and possibly lose it altogether.

The Bush administration's plan for Amtrak, first unveiled two years ago as the Passenger Rail Investment Reform Act, breaks the company into three parts: The politically sensitive Northeast Corridor would be owned by the Department of Transportation and leased to a proposed multistate compact. Amtrak would become an operating company, able to compete for contracts with states or other authorities to run trains. A third entity would hold title to Amtrak's brand and track-access rights. That makes about as much sense as breaking up the U.S. Postal Service into separate companies that sell stamps, deliver mail and own the post offices. Secretary Mineta's road show has taken him to Chicago, Detroit, Boston and, most recently, California. In Sacramento, he selectively asserted that "Californians give Amtrak over 27 million of their tax dollars each year to operate the San Joaquin service," but he didn't tell reporters that Amtrak employs 3,589 people in our state, providing $154.9 million in wages, or that the company's purchases of goods and services in California puts nearly $30 million into the economy annually.

That achievement is many miles from the sorry state of passenger service when Amtrak took over on May 1, 1971. Then, California was served with just two trains a day between Los Angeles and San Diego, one train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and a smattering of long-distance trains. Today, Amtrak operates 70 intercity trains and more than 200 commuter trains per day in California. Total annual ridership is 9.3 million. Of Amtrak's 20 busiest stations, five are in California: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Irvine and Emeryville.

The 10-year California State Rail Plan, issued by the California Department of Transportation last fall, notes that more than $2.7 billion has been invested in capital funding for intercity passenger service in California, and that the state has provided 63 percent of that investment. Under the White House proposal, a 50-50 matching fund for infrastructure is proposed, which will benefit California. But the proposed 2006 budget provides no operating subsidy, as it has for the past 35 years, transferring that burden entirely to the states. It is unclear how California can absorb those costs without huge fare increases.

While Secretary Mineta insists that the administration's plan "will save Amtrak," his speeches have deliberately discredited the company and used inflammatory language designed to demonize the railroad. In Sacramento, he alleged, "Amtrak ... insists on wasting [taxpayer] funds." In Boston, he asserted, "Amtrak's failure to maintain vital pieces of the corridor," neglecting to mention the federal government's consistent underfunding. And in Chicago, he plainly stated the administration's view of Amtrak: "It's nuts."

In truth, the White House plan for Amtrak is not to save it, but to force it into a wrenching, court-controlled bankruptcy that may have a number of negative impacts on the California economy. (The administration appears intent on reducing the federal budget deficit in part by shifting federal support for a national rail passenger network to the states.) Amtrak is currently contracted to operate Caltrain in the Bay Area, San Diego's Coaster and Metrolink in Los Angeles. For most of its routes in California, it operates on tracks owned by freight railroads, which are straining to meet capacity for their own trains and are being squeezed into ever-tighter time slots by the needs of commuter and Amtrak schedules. A bankruptcy may have a negative impact on these relationships. One source estimates that it may cost Caltrans as much as $23 million annually to pay for liability insurance, which Amtrak now provides.

The long-term vision of California rail planners is to increase the share of intercity rail travel by 2 1/2 to 3 times current levels, cut annual automobile miles traveled by 493 million miles and save 10 million gallons of gasoline annually. In our marketing-driven political landscape, without a strong, well-funded advocacy campaign for Amtrak, the rail passenger company's likely bankruptcy may well delay or derail that vision. Indeed, a crisis is just around the next curve if suppliers, fearing a bankruptcy, stop doing business with Amtrak, or trained employees decide to leave the railroad for more secure jobs. The California Department of Transportation needs to evaluate what the impact of a bankruptcy would be, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to send a clear signal to Washington that the state's growing reliance on trains cannot be sidetracked by the slow, deliberate death of Amtrak.